Flesh and Alloy: A dystopian novel

by Nathan Lunn

  “Activate! Activate it! Activate it! Activate!”

  Eddie was roaring back, his hands firmly by his sides, “Not now! It’s not safe! No!” The cacophony of sounds bounced off the metal walls, amplified into one unintelligible mess. Cracked from the assault on her eardrums, the sight of her suffering friend, and the freedom she alone had, Julie stood, running with an almost-inhuman shriek escaping her lips. Untethered, she wasted no time in bounding across the small space of the office, feet splashing in the waters to aid her evasion of the slow to move guards; Ellie stood behind the desk, hands defencelessly against her back, face frozen in the middle of her careless laughter.

  “Julie, wait!” Kye yelled out to her with such a pain and worry, voicebox crushed by the guard remaining, that she faltered in her outburst, foot pausing for just a moment, and head turning to lock eyes with him, widening at the guard coming towards her. The grief and rage Kye saw chiselled into her face morphed into surprise in front of his eyes as a single shot reverberated off the walls.

  ***

  Sipping on ragged breaths, Kye sunk to the floor, lifted only slightly by the guards whose hands dug into his arms like grips into jelly. His vision slipped as black swarmed across his sight, and the guards let him to the floor, weapons aimed in case he made any sudden movements as they stepped back towards their client in synergy – the guards beating on Clara had been withdrawn to Ellie’s protection as well, leaving her unconscious and collapsed to Kye’s right. Lying in the dry rug, he stretched his arm out to Julie, slumped a few feet away and staring at him, the energy slipping out of her eyes, as the minute bullet wound in her left side leaked red into the puddle around her. She fired a desperate, trapped look at Kye, and, gritting his teeth, he reached out to her. A low whine.

  Julie’s body spasmed as arcs of electricity jolted through her nervous system. The last of the light in her eyes winked out as death took a hold, jumping from the puddled water around her into the guards standing still, unaware of the trap they had just been caught in. They joined her in uncoordinated movement as the electrical surge of power passed by their armours and into their own bodies – frying out each end of their nervous systems and dropping them to the floor of the office with a great crash. Kye cried out as Julie continued to jolt, her lifeless ragdoll of a body slapping in the pool of lightning blue water like a fish deprived of oxygen. Great bangs began to explode from the water as the collection of bullets and guns erupted irregularly. Safe from the puddle and the Retarder poison leaking through it, Eddie lifted his finger from his temple, shaking the bright flash in front of him out of his head – Clara remained unconscious but safe to his right hand side.

  After the electrical charge had passed, Eddie looked up at what remained, through the white light clashing over his regular sight. A disgusting stench of ozone filled the entirety of the mobile office, along with the charred meat that accompanied the fried bodies of each of the bodyguards, slumped over one another and steaming lightly. Julie’s corpse, equally charred, was off to the left, ungracefully collapsed, the thin bullet wound in her side plugged with congealed blood. At the head of the office, a disorientated but alive Ellie Croft was wavering on the edge of her desk, her hair unwound and a hand gripping tightly on the wood, the other now showing a discreet pistol nestled tightly in her palm. A glaze had taken over her eyes, different to if she was using the commlink, but equally incapacitating.

  Disappointed, Eddie warily stood, ready to charge across the extinguished pool to attack the remaining enemy, when he was slammed in the side by a strong force, lifting him off his feet and into the side of the mobile office above Clara. The entire cabin shook, and the loud clang awoke her. As she groggily sat up, she noticed a tussling Eddie and Kye exchanging blows above her, one of Kye’s arms hanging weirdly limp by his side. She winced as her ribs flexed, and stood, gagging as she noticed the scene around her – she had to look away from Julie’s charred but recognisable corpse before she vomited. She spat red onto the dirtied and tacky carpet, stood weakly and locked eyes with Ellie at the other side of the office. No longer glazed, but targeted, she was on the verge of being dangerous once more – Clara mustered her strength and bounded across the puddle as Julie had, weaving around the bodies with difficulty until she slammed into Ellie and then the thin wall, shaking the office again. The small pistol in her hand skittered into the cabinets nearby as she flew back, firing a final defiant shot into the ceiling above them.

  The collective din of all the grunts and screams washed out into whitenoise as their battles continued on, shedding blood and bruises but each attacking for different reasons. Eddie’s use of the Retarder poison was draining, balancing him out against an amputated Kye – the struggle was nearly cold in practice, however, as the two individuals (both severely handicapped) were more into trading insults and accusations than punches and kicks. Unhinged and unfiltered, Kye spat at Eddie, charging him for crimes that Eddie returned to with an equal venom.

  “You killed her, you fuck!” Kye cried out, holding his working arm at full length to shove him, leaning over to the right as his arm dragged behind him.

  Eddie, swaying side to side, slapped the arm away, his voice laced with hatred. “She was already gone, Kye! You’re the murderer!”

  Kye swatted the charge away as he did Eddie’s feet. “Wrong! The only people I’ve killed were for good. Call it righteous destruction!”

  Eddie laughed manically, and punched Kye square across his jaw.

  “My brother is not righteous destruction, you asshole! Admit you killed him!” Kye stayed silent as he stroked the new wound on his face. Eddie followed it up with a second punch, throwing him off his balance even though he made connection. “Admit it, we all knew you fucking hated him anyway!” The second punch had irritated Kye, but he kept his mouth closed, scrabbling with his hand at the metal pyramid breaking his arm’s power. Eddie threw an arm back for another punch, and Kye caught it with his hand, attempting to twist it behind his back like he was able to with his cybernetic upgrade. The opposite effect occurred as he felt the pain from the initial punch slam through his wrist and crack it loudly, shooting a searing pain through from his palm to his shoulder. Crying out in pain, he charged Eddie, dropping both of them to the floor and the damp water on top of the guards. A sickening pop sounded as their cooked armour split, spilling out the interior of the guard’s body into the office – the smell was disorientating, and, coupled with the fall, had reduced the two men to grappling in close lock with one another. The smallest shards of glass punctured their skin, providing little jabs of pain that constantly fuelled their rage. Eddie found his voice as he did his hand, throwing an insult with a splash of water to Kye’s face.

  “You killed him! You murdered him! Even Julie agreed with me!” He craned his neck back to Julie’s corpse, instantly regretting it and turning back to Kye. Kye had done the same, and the sight of her, coupled with her name called out against him, broke him in half. All inhibitions removed, he grabbed a nearby shard of glass, stood, and stabbed his limp arm, gouging deep into the purple to remove the glowing golden pyramid. Bright pink light leaked from the arm and he roared as he cut through, throwing chips and chunks of purple nanobots to the floor around him – as he reached the end of his cut, his glass slipped and continued across his chest, drawing blood that dripped to the floor with the remnants of his arm. As the golden pyramid was removed, the remainder of the pink light that had been building up exploded outward, filling the small office and blinding everyone once again. Locked in a tussle of their own, Ellie and Clara were temporarily knocked off their rhythm, heads darting around the cramped cabin. Ellie – noticing Kye’s unlocked potential – shoved Clara off her and darted out the door in fear, ignored by a busy Kye and Eddie.

  “You’re wrong, Eddie.” Standing aloft over Eddie and Clara, Kye spoke, his voice calmer than it had been previously, a facade that hid the rage bubbling just moments away. Eddie and Clara had gone quiet, listening to what he was saying with a s
light look of contempt and confusion. Kye continued, unfazed by the stuttering morph and transition that his arm had begun to undergo. “You’re completely wrong. I didn’t murder him – I tried to save him!” As he said the word save, his arm exploded outward with an unpredictable force, blowing the office door open and streaming light back into the dingy room. Outlined by only the shadow on his face, a mad, twisted smile stretching across it, Kye looked different, a broken caricature of his former self, the darker elements that usually lay hidden exposed. Eddie, slapping his hands into the thick glass shards around him as he stood, spluttered in disbelief.

  “You’re a fucking liar, and I know it! Not one part of your twisted story matches up.” He matched Kye’s eyeline, yelling through gritted teeth. “You’re a fucking psychopath, Kye, and I can tell you exactly what went down on that island–”

  “You don’t have a clue what the hell happened on that goddamn island!” Kye yelled back, spittle flying from his lips, eyes bulging out of his skull – his purple arm, still careening out of control, had now begun to stretch down to the floor, sharp ridges pulsating down the far side. “You can’t even begin to understand the things that went down, the choices I had to make to survive.”

  Clara had turned impatient, and interjected herself into the conversation, separate entirely from the heated debate they were having. “Look, this is ridiculous, she’s getting away! We have to go!”

  Kye and Eddie both disregarded her, giving her a curt: “Just fuck off.”

  Scowling in their direction, she slipped out of the door after Ellie, but not before grabbing the miniaturised pistol from the floor and slipping it into her pocket. Alone now, Eddie launched a second attack against Kye, nearly skidding as he reached to grapple. Kye sidestepped it, unfazed by the charge, and stretched his arm to attack Eddie. Another burst of pink lit the room as his arm spread, stopping just short of Eddie – purple rain fell as nanobot chips dropped to the floor, before his arm retracted to its normal shape and position. Confused, he looked down at it, turning it over to inspect the deep gouge he had cut out earlier, now flickering with a small electrical buzz at its ragged edges, a lagging movement continuing to play out as the sharp sides smoothed with new nanobots crawling over like a festering wound.

  “You never made any choices to survive, Kye,” Eddie said, picking himself up from the floor once more. “You’re just a coward who can’t admit the truth.”

  “I’ve told you the truth. You can’t accept it,” Kye replied, flexing his arm as it healed. “I didn’t kill Danny. I tried to save him from his own ignorance. That was always his downfall, he moved too fast and fell for it.” Eddie fell silent, taking in this information. “I didn’t kill him, okay? I didn’t,” Kye repeated, as though he was affirming it to himself more than to Eddie. A new wave of anger overcame him as he caught sight of Julie once more: “But you did kill her…”

  “Ellie Croft killed Julie, Kye. Not me.”

  “Why do you think she’s fucking fried? Look at her,” Kye replied, pointing with his good arm. Eddie ignored him, looking at his feet and fiddling with something in his pocket. Kye bellowed, his voice rebounding off the walls and deafening Eddie: “I said look at her! You killed her when you activated the Retarder, I saw it!”

  Eddie snapped his head to look at Julie’s corpse, forearm tensing as he gripped his fist tightly.

  “Ellie shot her, that’s what killed her. I activated it after that. You told me to!” Eddie was desperate, anger and worry slipping into his frantic speech. “I wouldn’t have done it if I wasn't sure.”

  “I saw her living. I saw her die, and I know it was because of you! You could have helped first, lifted her up and out of the way before you activated the trap, why did you not…” Kye tailed off, lost in his own thoughts. He looked at Eddie, lips pinched tight and white, and noticed he had the same eyes as Danny, the same jawline. A throbbing returned behind his ears and in his temples as the walls of the office seemed to crush into him. He moved his arm around, looking down as it swayed, a delay in his own sight blending the movement together as though there was a latency to his articulation. Shifting shapes collapsed around him as he looked over the office, the water below his feet growing more yellow, until he centred on Eddie, his face overlain with Danny’s in an almost identical manner. Frozen in place, by the time he had noticed Eddie moving, it was too late, and as he looked over at the moving mash of men, he watched his hand draw down to Kye’s arm, a slight hint of silver flashing in the directed light of the office. Drawn from his stupor, he saw Eddie’s thumb begin to plunge as the needle in his fleshy arm pierced the skin. Reacting with a renewed vigor, he slapped Eddie away, tearing the needle from his arm and shattering it to the floor, all but half of the liquid crushed under his feet. The rest of the serum had successfully made it inside his body, and a rush of adrenaline surged from his arm, threatening to overpower him.

  Eddie took his opportunity as the serum spread through Kye’s body, pushing him out of the office and onto the ground outside. Scooping some glass from the floor as he went, he followed Kye out, wincing a little as he landed awkwardly on his foot – the cramped houses gave way to a small cobbled street, lying in exaggerated shadow. Kye, still woozy, suffered a few punches to his stomach and jaw, dribbling blood down his chin as Eddie grabbed him by the scuff of his neck. Delirious, eyes rolling, he started to babble, words streaming out of his mouth with the red.

  “Save them. Just reach down and... why did I not?”

  Eddie stopped punching him, leaning in so he could hear better. “What’s that?” He clenched his fist again, and after giving Kye a shake, confused him even further, drawing out the damning words:

  “You killed her. You didn’t save her, you could have waited from it… I couldn’t save him. I didn’t even try…”

  Eddie, even with catching a few words inbetween, was able to piece together what he had said. The truth of the situation dawning on him, he exploded.

  “You fucking what? I knew it! I fucking– ” he cut himself off, too angry to continue, instead deciding to let out his rage in physical form. He wanted to hurt Kye, make him feel the same pain he had felt when he had heard the news of Danny’s death.

  Showing no restraint any longer, he threw a punch past Kye’s face, the shard of glass he held between his knuckles ripping into his face, sliding up past his cheek and splitting open his eye – the wound left just by his temple, throwing blood onto the ground by his side and tearing a wail from his mouth that pierced Eddie’s eardrums. As he went in for a second attack with the red chip, Kye’s arm reacted. The mix of pain and drugs led to a confusion of stimuli, resulting in a strong and violent morph, exacerbated further by the struggling state it was already in – the arm spread, thin whirling tendrils sliding around one another as it shot into Eddie, punching into his chest and throwing him across the small street into the brick wall to their side. Kye remained on the floor, his left arm cradling the cut in his face as his right acted on its own free will, tossing and turning around the tight corridor, breaking cracks out of the walls and smashing up the grimy windows. Like flailing tentacles trying to find a home in the dark, they moved from area to area, scouring the surface as though they were looking for something to attack, something to latch onto. They found this in Eddie’s leg, dragging him back to Kye’s side with a strong pull across the cobbled stones beneath.

  “Shit, get off me!” Eddie yelled, slashing at the purple tentacle wrapped around his leg in vain – it absorbed the blow and a second tentacle slapped it out of his grasp. Closer to Kye, he stamped himself up to his feet and swung his fist at Kye’s stomach in a last ditch effort. It connected, and, doubling himself over, Kye moaned louder; at the same time, a single tendril sharpened itself and pierced Eddie’s ankle, spearing his tendon and rousing a similarly loud shout from his own lips. He raised his arm again to punch a second time, aiming for Kye’s streaming wound, but found his fist speared by a similar tendril, pulling it away from Kye and twisting it beh
ind his back. Simultaneously, he felt thumps all over his body as multiple tendrils impacted: the arch in his lower back; the flat of his untouched foot; the wrist of his other hand. Pain flooded his brain, enhanced as he was lifted by the spines into the muggy air of the dark dingy passageway. Kye continued to moan, clutching at his eye, the other one completely behind his skull now. Eddie yelled out his name, breaking through some sort of barrier to hit Kye’s ears.

  “Sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…” Kye repeated over and over, his voice slurring the words together until they joined together in one incomprehensible mess. “I’m lifting you, Danny. I got you.” Shuddering breaths matched the mess of words, complementing Eddie’s slick screams as his body was raised high and stretched far past the limits of comfort.

  31

  * * *

  Case Number: MM 05/04/01/3462

  Incident: Multiple Murders

  Reporting Officer: Constable Friar Willis Date of Report: 08 March 2142

  At around 3:42am on 8 March 2142, the precinct received multiple pings for various murders around the slums area. After the cap for complaints had been reached, I was dispatched to the area in order to discern what had happened, despite some refrain from myself – Captain Montgomery assured me that the area was worth visiting as the fundraiser in the day previous had held many wealthy guests, as well as the musician, Arturo Jefferson, and some might have been in danger of the difficult area.